Who becomes a terrorist, and why?

After major terrorist attacks hit Brussels and Paris, Europe is still reeling. These atrocities prompted a heated dispute between two noted French scholars of political Islam, Gilles Kepel and Olivier Roy, over why a handful of European Muslims become terrorists.

Their disagreement isn’t just an intellectual squabble. It strikes to the heart of how the West understands violent Islamist extremism — and what the appropriate policy responses might be.

European terrorists are mostly homegrown

Most of the assailants in the recent Brussels and Paris attacks were raised in either France or Belgium. As were those who carried out the January 2015 assault on the Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris. Why did these people turn against their own countrymen — and who or what is to blame?

Both Kepel and Roy are leading experts on political Islam whose works are widely read by policymakers. And they disagree vigorously about why French and Belgian citizens of Muslim extraction turn to terrorism.

Is Islam to blame?

In the wake of the Paris attacks last November, Roy wrote in Le Monde that we shouldn’t be talking about the “radicalization of Islam” but rather the “Islamization of radicalism.” Roy doesn’t see radicalization as the result of a country’s failure to integrate immigrant communities. Even more controversially, he downplays the role of religion.

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Pat G

MV1 you are the second person on this site who has explained that ISIS is actually a respectful term and they should be called Daesh. I don't know why it didn't sink in the first time. I comment on here all the time, and I am going to start using Daesh instead of ISIS. Thank You!

Mustang Voodoo1

The following does not infer in any manner I support their reasoning....
The scourge we know as Daesh (please do no lend credence to their claims of successfully establishing an Islamic State by calling them ISIS / ISIL) gains sympathy / support/ and sometimes numbers when a drone strike either mistakes the individual(s) killed as/a terrorist(s), or during legitimate drone strikes yield collateral damage and innocents are killed

Mustang Voodoo1

You make some good points...

Pat G

Two French scholars are having a public and heated debate over the reasons why some European Muslims become terrorists, and are prone to become the really violent and extreme type. One claims it is not culture or religion, but a general revolt using Islam as a way of rebelling against society. The other one blames social, economic and political marginalization of European Muslims and extreme forms of Islam. The article points out that it is important to debate their ideas because they have implications for the trend of policies in western nations. Honestly, looking at the terrible destruction of life and property ISIS is inflicting on the planet, these 2 scholars might do better to put down their pens and pick up a gun!